Now that every system was down, Plague and whoever was with him could storm the facility, and the opposite could also be said. I didn't know if there were any "test subjects" left in the facility, so I may have just set a bunch of monsters loose inside this place. Go me.

  But I could manage that, and besides, I didn't have much choice. Now all I needed to do was get out of that godforsaken place.

  I ran back to the elevator and took it to the top floor, a journey that took a lot of time, like maybe just ten minutes of sitting inside that metal box waiting for it to rise. I was getting ever so impatient as I watched the negative numbers go up, slowly but surely. Once the door opened, I found the barrel of a gun pointed straight at me.

  "Who are you!? Oh, it's you, Ayla." The wielder was Cooper wearing a gas mask. The bottom floor was just a reception area; it was simple and open with a massive round table where the receptionists would sit behind. There were also turnstiles near the entrance to the building. There were soldiers sweeping all of the floor, checking all corners and blind spots.

  Cooper helped me off the floor, and he brought me outside, where, to my surprise, Emily and Viktor were being dragged into a van. Plague and Cayde were also there. I went to talk to them.

  "Plague! You found me? "I didn't know how he knew where I was. I mean, I doubt Emily was stupid enough to not check the van or me for trackers.

  "The booster I gave you also implanted a tracker into your blood. "Oh, well, there goes my privacy, I guess. But I couldn't complain; he had saved me, and without him, I'd basically be stranded in a city I barely knew in the dead centre, where the most zeds were to be.

  "Oh, and what happened? What is going to happen now?" I was asking more in the sense of 'Did you manage to convince the rich dad of my brother's ex to come save us?'

  "Well, I managed to strike a deal with Mr Sainz, and he agreed to send a ship over if we disabled the defences and got all the research data out of Reigner. And thanks to you we have half done!" He said.

  Just then, Emily was being dragged into the troop transport when she overheard Plague talking.

  "You what!? Did you disable all security!? You dumbass!!! This place is going to blow!!" She started thrashing in the arms of the soldier that was dragging her. She seemed scared, terrified even. That caught Plague's attention.

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  "The central console also controlled the containment cells for the experiments, and there are about a dozen suicide bomber zeds per floor! This place is going to blow up!!" She said.

  And, as if written in a script, we all heard a low rumble beneath our feet. It was like an earthquake just hit. Then another, and then the entire bottom floor was engulfed in flames. I just had time to put up a forcefield on the entrance to the building, so everyone outside was safe, but the people on the inside...

  Then, the entire floor beneath the building collapsed, and if it hadn't been for my forcefield, we would all have been buried under rubble. It was deafening.

  Once it cleared out, the entire skyscraper was now buried under the superstructure that ran miles below.

  "Who was inside?" Plague asked.

  "The wanker core, along with Firstimosa." Cooper answered in a deadpan tone, the shock of the situation still making him not realise the gravity of the situation. To be honest, I also didn't realise what had happened.

  Plague was breathing heavily; he was probably the only one there who was thinking straight at that moment.

  "We lost all the research," he said. He wasn't being disrespectful to the dead; he was mentioning how all our hopes had been for naught.

  It was true. If we wanted to get the data, we would need to find all the archives of the research that were hundreds of metres beneath rubble, and that's considering the chance that they had survived. Not even I could lift so much concrete.

  But then I remembered my dream, or whatever you want to call that weird memory I had of my father.

  "Plague, I know where we can find more research. Take everyone to wherever they need to be; I and Cayde will catch up to you." I had told him what to do without even realising it. I was beginning to be a good soldier. I knew where I could find a couple of terabytes of research that could fetch a pretty couple of million.

  Plague was slightly taken aback by my words, but he smiled and nodded. He then told Cayde to accompany me and to take me to the dock when we were done. I guess Cayde already knew where we had to go.

  Plague gave the orders, and everyone got into the many troop transports they had lined up. The only ones left after the dust had settled were me and Cayde.

  "Ayla, where to now?" he asked. I was going to answer, but I didn't know where it was exactly, and I am also directionally dyslexic; basically, I mix up left and right.

  "I can't tell you, but I can take us there. But if I recall correctly, it is pretty far away." I looked around and saw an old chopper bike that seemed usable. I, of course, didn't know how to ride a motorbike; I didn't even know how to ride a pedal bike. I ran to it, and then Cayde called me back.

  "Ayla, let's take this one instead." He was across the parking lot from me, propping up a first-generation Hayabusa. Oh yes! I love that bike; it's bloody awesome! Fuck the chopper, I wanted the Busa!

  I ran there and marvelled at the massive machine.

  "Cayde, do you know how to ride it?" I asked.

  "Well, yeah, of course I can. "Can you?" he asked. I shook my head, and he motioned for me to get on first, in the driver's place.

  "Cayde, I can't drive it! I don't know how!" I immediately knew I wasn't going to scamper my way out of this, and I also knew it was going to end horribly.

  "You don't need to. I'll keep us upright; you just have to press the handlebars to turn. "I'll do the rest," he said. I was going to have to trust him.

  I mounted and scooted over to the front, basically just sitting on the back part of the fuel tank. Cayde mounted, and the bike immediately dipped down; it was like a two hundred kilo man had just hopped on. He then pulled out a lockpick and a turn tool, and I shifted to the side to let him pick the lock. He didn't take long to get the bike going. Cayde was holding on to the ends of the handlebars while I held on to the crowns of the suspension fork. The bike was loud but so cool! Cayde then let go of the clutch, and we darted ahead. All my excitement instantly vanished as he weaved through broken cars and rubble scattered all around the streets. It took a bit for me to get my bearings right and remember that I had to guide the bike too. The streets were vaguely familiar to me, but I knew them well enough to know where my house was. Cayde was doing most of the driving, and he was a bloody good rider. I only had to lightly push on one side for him to understand and turn the street. It didn't take long until we arrived.

  The building was just as I remembered it. It was grey and tall, with not much decor on the outside. It was weird that we hadn't encountered any zeds, but then again, we had just slaughtered hundreds of thousands or even millions of them; I doubted there were enough of them to be a threat. The front door to the landing was broken into, and Cayde and I entered without much worry. I ran up the stairs, and I didn't have eyes for anything else other than my old door. It was on the third floor at the end of a two-way hall that extended to the sides from the staircase. There was one apartment on each side of the hall.

  Cayde was close behind me. When he came out of the staircase, he found me standing in front of the green door with more regrets than anything. I couldn't believe I was going to have to sell all my father's research to some corporate CEO, but it was either that or the island.

  "I don't suppose you have the keys." Cayde said in a soft tone. I guess he could feel my unease. Well, more than unease, it was all the things running through my mind at the same time. I had just caused the entire wanker core and Firstimosa to die, their bodies never to be found, and for what? Why had they died? Was it just so that we could survive? I didn't like that, not one bit.

  "No, I don't have them. But we don't need them."

  I stuck my hand out and raised all the pins inside the door lock and turned the bolt with my mind. It was easy.

  The door lazily opened as we watched. I opened it completely and stepped inside. I was disheartened to find the house to be a lot different from what I remembered. Instead of the minimalist style I recalled, everything was now nicely decorated in old tones. I felt a knot of melancholy and anger forming in my throat at the thought that my old house had been home to someone else, but more than that, I was getting angry because I thought all that was left of my parents was gone and forgotten. Two great scientists, now nothing, literally. The only memories of them lay with me and my brother, along with a reduced number of people. But that was how most people end up, as a mere memory that will inevitably vanish. I didn't want to end up like that; maybe that's what drove me to write all this. It's very depressing.

  I began walking around the changed house, slowly getting more and more worked up by my inability to remember anything, or rather find anything where it should have been. I went into my parents' room, and there I saw a framed picture of the people who soiled my old house. It was a happy elderly couple. I felt so mad then that I let a pulse of energy loose and threw the picture across the room, shattering the glass. Then I saw another one; it was the child, and another with the grandchildren. I finally understood it. I couldn't be mad; I didn't have a reason to be mad. No, that wasn't it. I didn't have anyone to be mad at.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  That couple was dead now, as were their offspring and their offspring's offspring. There wasn't anyone left to blame or be angry at. And the worst part is that I had probably killed what was left of them.

  I dropped on my knees in front of the bed and cried. I had to get a lot off my chest.

  I had killed so many people – well, zeds. But those monsters were once people. They were once people just like I am. And now they were nothing but a pile of mush. 'Mindless monsters' is what they're called, what I call them. But looking at it now, the only monster there was me, and me alone.

  Tears kept flowing down onto my arms and then the mattress beneath, but I couldn't stop them.

  Why was I there? What reason was there for me to be alive? How would the world have been if, instead of me, someone else had gotten my strand? I kept thinking about that. I felt a hand touch my shoulder. My mind raced again, and then someone's face appeared clearly. Slone.

  Slone was the one responsible! Slone killed them all! Slone ruined my life! Slone ruined Mary's life! Slone ruined Donn's life! I wasn't responsible for anything; he was! Why was I punishing myself for what that bastard had done!? Of course!!

  I snapped out of my mourning and looked around. It was Cayde's hand on my shoulder.

  "Are you doing ok?" he asked.

  "Yeah, just... a lot has been happening. I'm not a soldier like you. C'mon, let's just get this over with. And sorry, I didn't want to waste time," I said with a second wind.

  "Ayla, take it easy. I'm not a soldier either."

  "Of course you are! You're strong. "You're used to these things," I said. I got up and opened the wardrobe, with the hope that the new tenants had left the safe alone.

  "Truth is, I'm not a soldier. A soldier is human; I'm not. I don't feel things like you do. Sympathy is alien to me, or at least how I imagine it is for you. Ayla, I don't know what hurts right now in you. But I do know pain when I see it. I don't want to sound like I know what I'm talking about, but take things easy. You're not made of steel; you can break under stress." He was making a real hard attempt at comforting me, and honestly, it was lame. But I could tell he was trying. I don't know anything about who this man was, but I wanted to know more. Not then, though.

  I peered inside the wardrobe and found a crude attempt at hiding the safe. The safe was encrusted into the wall, and I guess the homeowners thought it was easier to paint over it and put the coats over it so as to hide it better, but you could still see it. I needed something to scrape the paint off.

  "Cayde, do you have a knife you don't mind ruining?" I asked.

  "Sure," he said. And as so, a black mist began coming out of his hand, and I saw the faintest shadow of a blade behind. He shook his hand, and now he was holding a tanto knife.

  I took it; it felt extremely well made.

  "How...?" I began asking, but he cut me off.

  "I can make anything as long as it has tasted blood and death. It's the sad truth of being me."

  "Why sad? "This is awesome!" I said. Cayde's face winced as if hurt.

  "It's not. Do you know what I am?"

  "You're a god, right?"

  He sighed before answering.

  "Not exactly. Gods are intentionally made to help in the management of reality. I, however, am not. I was a mistake. A mistake born of the innate desire for destruction that humanity holds within. That desire was so strong that my original self was enough of a threat that the real gods had to split me. I'm not a god; I'm a mistake. And it hurts to live like this."

  So that was his secret. He was born of us.

  "My strength is tied to the current destructive crave of humanity, and my skills with any given weapon are the sum of every human to have ever wielded it. The more wars and humans there are, the stronger I get, and also the greater the need for me to go ape shit. I'm unstoppable, and yet the one thing I want is to be defeated. I want to satisfy my desire and let loose for real, and to lose. Does that sound weird?" He sounded a little angrier now.

  He realised quickly and sighed. "Sorry, I don't want to bore you to death. Go on, do your thing."

  He... wanted to lose. That sounded so weird, and yet I could feel how badly he needed that.

  I complied and scraped the paint off of the shiny metal door of the safe. The knife was razor sharp, and it was scratching the metal of the safe, but I didn't care. The number pad was now exposed, and I remembered the combination. It was the first seven numbers of the Fibonacci succession, which were 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13. I pressed the numbers on the pad, and after a cute beep, the door opened. Inside there were now an assortment of hard drives and SSDs, along with a singular pen drive with my name on it. I hovered them all out and laid them on the bed. The pen drive was one of those that slid sideways on a metal hinge, and it had some paper taped to it that read "for Ayla".

  "Good, now we have to bring them intact." Cayde got a shoebox from the closet and a backpack also from inside the closet and put all the SSDs in the shoebox and then the hard drives into the backpack alone. He then put the shoebox inside a different zipper and handed me the backpack. "C'mon, we need to be quick.

  He began making his way back, and I followed suit. Then it hit me: this was the real last time I was probably going to ever see this house. Hell! It was probably the last time I was going to see the entire island!

  We went back down the stairs and onto the Hayabusa. This time Cayde stopped in front of a pizza delivery service shop and got one of the helmets for me from the mopeds parked outside.

  "It's ok; I trust you," I said.

  "It's not that; it's for your eyes and the wind," he answered.

  After that, he got in front, and I got the pleasure of relaxing onto his back as we sped through the city at breakneck speed. I had been in this situation before, holding onto the back of this man while he was doing something that endangered us both, and I was fine with that. I didn't care anymore; I trusted him.

  Eventually we made it out onto the open road, and I closed my eyes to rest a bit. I had my arms around Cayde, and I knew I wasn't going to fall off anytime soon.

  I didn't mind the noise the wind made. I didn't mind the noise the bike made. All I wanted was to close my eyes and set my mind at ease.

  I didn't know how long it took for us to arrive, but once I felt the bike slow down, I opened my eyes to a delightful sight.

  The ship I presumed to be the one Amy's dad had sent was a good bit out at sea, and the dock we were at was ferrying people to the ship in all the other boats around the dock. There were fishing vessels and fancy yachts all forming an odd conga line of ships.

  There were also buses parked all around us. They belonged to the different towns and outposts that the F.U.C.K. operated.

  There were fewer people around the dock than I expected, substantially fewer. I took off the helmet and got off the bike. Cayde went to park it in one of the boats because I told him I wanted to take it with me. I first had to find Plague.

  The dock was itself simple. There were only two spots where a moderately sized ship could dock, and then there was a pier with smaller recreation vessels off to the side. There was also a warehouse on the left side of the bayou and two big gas tanks on the right. It was simple, but it was enough for us. The ship off in the distance was too big to dock here; besides, it wasn't exactly safe. The soldiers surrounding the wire mesh fence around the docks would sometimes send out a couple shots, indicating that there was a zed or two.

  Plague was overseeing the civilians boarding the last boat, and he was glad to see me.

  "Ayla! Did you get it?" he asked.

  I unhung the backpack from my back and gave it to him.

  "There is more than I remembered; is that good?" I answered.

  He smiled warmly.

  "Grand. C'mon, your brother and your girlfriend were waiting for you. Neither of them would go anywhere without you. Helena and the baby are already aboard, as is Cooper. We're the only ones left," he said.

  Suddenly, I felt something push me from behind, and I found myself wrapped in Mary's arms. "Ayla! I thought you were dead; I was so worried! "Oh god, I thought I'd lost you." She sounded raw and trembling. She buried her head in my neck from behind. I turned around in her arms and kissed her like it was the last day on earth. I too had thought I'd lost her.

  "Mary, I love you!" I said. I began crying in joy; I was finally going to get out of this godforsaken island. Erithy had turned from being a nice place to live into a desolate wasteland of death in a matter of two months, and nobody here wanted anything less than to get as far away from it as possible. As Mary and I embraced, Plague called every soldier to the boat, just as Cayde came back up from leaving the boat inside the small yacht we were going to take.

  "Mary, where's Donn?" I asked.

  She raised her head from my chest and answered. "Since the jammers are down, he called Amy to talk to her. He shouldn't be long now." She said. Of course, all the defences and jammers were down. It made me wonder what exactly the defences were, because I'd just been told there was something but never what it was. They must have been dangerous, that's for sure.

  All the soldiers were now inside the boat, and now it was only Plague, Cayde, Mary, me and my brother left.

  I saw as my brother emerged from behind the warehouse with a smile on his face. But then, a shadow blocked the sun.

  Then, the sound of something large beating against the wind. And an earsplitting roar. A huge drake landed behind my brother and swatted him out of the way like a ragdoll. My brother's body flew, and he hit his leg against one of those solid metal things used to moor ships with ropes. He plopped down into the water of the pier. It was only then that anyone had time to react. But just as that happened, the thing spat fire.

  I only had time to protect myself and the boat. The forcefield prevented the flames from engulfing me, but the heat still felt like I was swimming in lava. Once the thing stopped, I noticed part of my hair was on fire. I panicked and flailed around my arms trying to put it out; once it died down, I was able to think.

  The beast was... huge. It could have carried one tank in each foot; it was basically the size of one of the Game of Thrones dragons and looked the part if it wasn't for the fact that its skin was falling apart. It was a rotten thing alright. I had to act, to do something.

  "That was my favourite jacket." I heard it from my left. It was Cayde.

  I hadn't protected him from the flames, but it didn't matter. He was intact, completely intact. His hair was like brand new. The only part of him that hadn't survived was the clothes, and GOD DAMN!!! His poor wife!! Oh my god, that thing had to be some sort of illegal, and it was soft! Oh my god, I couldn't believe I had sat in front of that thing! He was also caked up; I've never seen a waggon on a man like that one. Damn.

  "Ayla. Get in the boat and go; I'll take care of this." Cayde turned to me, and I got to see his Olympian build. Finally someone who could beat Sofia Briggs in a bodybuilding competition, and he was lean too. He was the peak of athletics and just bodies in general. He also had a glint in his eye; he was excited to fight that thing. Black smoke began emanating from his body, and once he was completely engulfed, he stepped out wearing a mix of samurai armour and European laminate plate, all in black. That was what Cayde looked like when he was going to go apeshit. And everyone in a one hundred metre radius was in danger.

  My body went into autopilot, and I booked it to the boat and yelled at everyone to get the engine full throttle. In the time it took me to sprint, the boat was far enough that I had to leap to reach it. After slamming onto the deck, I got up and tried to find my brother in the water. His unconscious body was floating a bit away from me, so I levitated him out of the water and laid him on the deck. The soldiers there gathered around just as the drake shot another flame at us, but I stopped it again. Cayde shouted at it, and his voice boomed in all our ears; he was letting go.

  Donn was unconscious but breathing, and his left leg now had another knee, right around the halfway point of his shin. Luckily, the bone hadn't broken the skin, but it wasn't a pretty sight either.

  Plague rushed to me, as did Mary.

  "Mary, two splints, now!" Plague ordered her.

  Mary was startled but complied. She made two long sticks out of her fingers, and I watched as they regrew back. Plague arranged the black biometal in position and bent my brother's shin back in place with firmness and effectiveness. He tied it up with a rag he was given by the soldiers.

  "Ayla, where's Cayde?" asked Plague.

  "He's... having a little fun. Don't worry. But what was that thing?"

  "That was the air defence. Since you disabled its orders, it went on to act like an animal, and it would seem we were a juicy target for it." He explained.

  "That thing was the air defence? How? Like, how was it controlled?" I asked.

  "Zeds can be controlled, but it's so hard even I can't do it. That's how the big horde reached us at White Wall. Now." He started clapping his hands at me. Then Mary followed his example, then everyone else. They started applauding me. After all, after all I had done. I was finally free! I started laughing like a fucking maniac. I couldn't stop laughing hysterically. Mary put her arms around me, and I just threw us both onto the floor of the deck. I squeezed her to me, tears rolling down my face as we rolled around, laughing our long sorrows away.

  So yeah, that's how my life began anew.